Re: Call for OPW project ideas

[Germán Poo-Caamaño <gpoo gnome org>]

On Sat, 2014-09-27 at 11:45 -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Germán Poo-Caamaño" <gpoo gnome org>
> > To: "Marina Zhurakhinskaya" <marinaz redhat com>
> > Cc: "GNOME Foundation" <foundation-list gnome org>, "desktop-devel-list" <desktop-devel-list gnome org>
> > Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 11:23:34 AM
> > Subject: Re: Call for OPW project ideas
> >
> > On Fri, 2014-09-26 at 23:48 -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote:
> > > Dear Foundation,
> > >
> > > The application process for the new round of Outreach Program for
> > > Women internships has recently started, and we are looking for people
> > > willing to mentor GNOME projects in this round. Because we only
> > > usually have a few participants in OPW, this round we would only like
> > > to offer projects that are most strategic for GNOME. These include,
> > > but are not limited to, projects in the area of privacy [1], developer
> > > experience, GTK+ [2], core experience, core applications [3], and web
> > > infrastructure. We would also like people to think ahead of time how
> > > they will be able to provide excellent mentorship to the interns
> > > before, during, and after the internship, and whether there is a
> > > larger project team the intern will be able to receive support from.
> > > Matthias Clasen, Allan Day, and Sriram Ramkrishna have kindly agreed
> > > to be a part of a cross-team triage committee for proposed project
> > > ideas. Please add ideas you are willing to mentor to the wiki page for
> > > the round [4] by early next week.
> >
> > Hi Marina,
> >
> > Will the mentors still be required to sign a document that makes them
> > legally liable?
>
> Hi Germán,
>
> Yes. The legal liability is only for gross negligence, recklessness or
> intentional wrongdoing. This is covered on
> https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen#Contracts
>
> This is not unique to OPW. GSoC has similar terms mentors have to
> agree to, which are much more broad -
> http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2014/org_admin_agreement .

The difference is that the GSoC agreement is between the organization
and Google, no mentor becomes legally liable (though, IANAL).

In that sense, it would preferable to leave the OPW mentorship to people
who work for companies that support their involvement in FOSS, so they
would have a legal support from their companies.

For 100% volunteers, it is just taking a risk for free.  There is always
a risk of a misunderstanding becoming a big pain, even if proven right
in court.

-- 
Germán Poo-Caamaño
http://calcifer.org/